1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to page lifting devices which are used to facilitate the closing of loose-leaf binders.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many pages at the front and back of a binder, unless lifted, remain at the base of the rings near the spine of the binder on closing. Unless these pages are manually moved towards the top of the rings, or a functional page lifting device is used, the pages toward the front and back of the binder become jammed and damaged. Also, because of the jammed pages, the binder is prevented from closing all the way.
A variety of devices are in common use which are intended to lift or protect loose-leaf pages. Many of the available devices require either some manual lifting of the pages on closing the binder, or reduce the number of pages that the binder will hold, or are of complicated construction and therefore are somewhat costly, or any combination of these.
The number of such devices in common use and the failure of many to be wholly effective without manual assistance emphasizes the need for a page lifting device which is both effective and simple, as presently described. In addition, some embodiments of the present invention will be particularly suited to use with binders having more than the typical two or three rings.
The primary problem with all presently used page lifters is that the lifters pivot at or near the ring cover resulting in the pivot axis of the page lifter being substantially offset from the axis that the pages pivot around. This requires that the pages slide on the lifters while the binder is being closed which puts the pages at risk of damage and/or causes them to jam between the binder covers and the binder rings.
Prior art has described devices with the pivot axis aligned with the axis of the rings but these have been complex, expensive and/or required features to be incorporated into the binder during manufacture.